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Obama Signature Restores Retirement Pay

(Feb. 18, 2014) Congress easily passed and President Barack Obama quickly signed legislation that eliminates the cost-of-living cap placed on military retirement pay for working-age retirees. NGAUS supported the legislation.

The Senate passed the bill 95-3 last week, one day after the House approved it by a vote of 326-90. Obama signed the bill Saturday.

The law does away with a previous law that capped the COLA for working-age military retirees at one percentage point below inflation beginning in 2015. That law was part of a budget deal approved in December that had bipartisan support, but almost immediately came under fire for the COLA cap that would have saved about $7 billion over a decade. The new law finds the savings by extending other cuts elsewhere in the budget until 2024.

The new law applies only to current service members and retirees. Those who enlist in the future will be subject to the cap when they retire in 20 years or more.